Electronic message organization via social groups

ABSTRACT

A mechanism for automatically organizing electronic messages is described herein. Social groups of a particular user that may be representative of topics, people, projects, and the like can be automatically learned based at least in part upon historical correspondence of the user. Moreover, messages can be automatically prioritized based at least in part upon historical correspondence patterns. Electronic messages may be presented to the user in accordance with group information and how important the messages are to the user.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/501,495, filed on Jul. 13, 2009, and entitled “ELECTRONIC MESSAGEORGANIZATION VIA SOCIAL GROUPS”, the entirety of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Individuals often use electronic communications to communicate withothers, wherein electronic communications include email, instantmessaging, posting comments with respect to a story or blog, writing ablog, text messaging through utilization of mobile phones, amongstothers. For instance, individuals today can use an email application tocommunicate with other people, to transfer documents or other files toindividuals in a professional setting, to share pictures/videos withfamily or friends, etc.

Typically, email applications are configured to display emails to usersbased upon time of transmittal or receipt of an email. Thus, an emailreceived more recently is typically presented above an email receivedlater in time. Many email applications additionally include a mechanismthat allows emails to be displayed based upon sender of the email,subject of the email, or other suitable criteria. Because so many peopleuse email to communicate with one another, organizing emails in aneffective manner can be problematic.

One example manner for organizing emails is creation of folders in anemail application, wherein an email can be manually or automatically(based upon rules defined by a user) placed in a particular folder.Thus, for instance, a user can create an email folder that correspondsto family members of the user. When an email is received from a familymember of the user, the user can cause the email to be located in thecreated folder. Moving emails from an inbox of an email application toan appropriate folder can be done manually, such that the user firstreads the email and determines which folder the email belongs to andthereafter manually transfers the email to the appropriate folder. Inanother example, the user can generate one or more customized rules thatcause emails to be automatically transferred from an inbox to a folderat the time the email is received (such that the user never sees theemail in the inbox).

While use of folders can be an effective manner for organizing asubstantial number of emails, organizing emails in such a manner can beexpensive in terms of time. Additionally, many users are apprehensive inconnection with causing email to be automatically moved from an inbox toa certain folder, as the user may forget to review contents of thefolder.

SUMMARY

The following is a brief summary of subject matter that is described ingreater detail herein. This summary is not intended to be limiting as tothe scope of the claims.

Described herein are various technologies pertaining to organization ofelectronic messages. As used herein, an electronic message may be anemail, an instant message, a notification about a new or changed webpage content (often delivered as an RSS feed), or other suitablemessage. As will be described in greater detail herein, historicinteractions of a user (and possibly other related information) can beanalyzed, and social groups of the user can be generated based at leastin part upon the analysis. Further, importance of an electronic messageto an individual can be inferred based upon historic interaction of theuser with the sender of the electronic message and/or other intendedrecipients of the electronic message. Accordingly, the electronicmessage can be selectively displayed in a graphical user interface inaccordance with the inferred importance such that messages deemed to beof greater importance are displayed more prominently to the individual.The importance of the electronic message can be inferred based upon oneor more of a variety of parameters pertaining to the historicinteractions of the individual, including topic or topics of theelectronic message, frequency of interaction with individuals that areintended recipients of the electronic message, current events, etc.

The deemed importance of an electronic message can additionally beutilized to display the electronic message in a particular place (or notat all) in a graphical user interface. For instance, if the electronicmessage corresponds to a feed that is rarely read by the individual,such message can be placed at the periphery of a graphical userinterface. Periodically or from time-to-time, messages found to be oflittle importance can be summarized and presented to the individual(e.g., included in an email that is automatically transmitted to theindividual, wherein the email comprises a summary of multiple messagesdeemed to be of relatively little importance to the individual). Thus,the individual can quickly peruse the summary to ascertain if anythingin any of the messages is interesting to the individual, and if so, mayreview individual messages. Thus, electronic messages that are aged,electronic messages pertaining to folders that are rarely read,electronic messages that are manually moved out of the inbox, etc. canbe placed in the periphery of the graphical user interface andsummarized in an automated fashion according to a schedule, forinstance.

Moreover, electronic messages can be assigned/clustered into one or moregroups, wherein a group can be representative of a group of people, aproject, events, topics, long-running conversations, etc. Theutilization of groups and inferred priority can be utilized to providean uncluttered view of an email inbox, for instance, such that the usercan quickly ascertain what topics are deemed to be important to theuser, what items/messages, conversations are deemed to be important tothe user, which individuals are deemed to be important to the user, etc.Again, this uncluttered view can be provided to the individual as afunction of historical interactions of the individual, which can beanalyzed to learn what/who is and is not important to the user.Additionally, the individual can manually override membership of a groupand/or inferred importance of a message.

As indicated above, a group can include a plurality of individuals, andthe collection of such individuals can be representative of a topic, aconversation thread, a certain collection of people (e.g., familymembers), etc. A group can be selected, which can cause additionalinformation pertaining to the group to be presented to the user. Thisinformation may include updates to social networking sites pertaining toone or more members of the group, information pulled from other sourcesthat may be relevant to the group or topics discussed in the group, suchas news stories or other information that may be pertinent to the group.Moreover, attachments and/or links transmitted amongst members of thegroup can be collected and displayed to the individual when the group isselected by the individual. In addition, data objects (including files,web pages, links, etc.) shared among the members of the group and storedin some persistent locations known to the individual can also bepresented to the user.

Other aspects will be appreciated upon reading and understanding theattached figures and description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an example system thatfacilitates assigning an electronic communication to a learned socialgroup of a user.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of an example system thatfacilitates generating a summary pertaining to a learned social group ofa user.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example graphical user interface that displaysemails in connection with learned social groups.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example graphical user interface that presentsemails pertaining to a learned social group to a user.

FIG. 5 is an example graphical user interface that depicts presentationof an email to an individual.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example graphical user interface that depicts asummary of email usage with respect to a user and a learned social groupof a user.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram of an example system thatfacilitates automatically learning social groups of a user based atleast in part upon historical communications pertaining to the user.

FIG. 8 is an example graphical user interface that illustrates learnedsocial groups of a user.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram that illustrates an example methodology forassigning an electronic message to a learned social group of a user.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram that illustrates an example methodology forautomatically assigning an email message to a learned social group of auser.

FIG. 11 is an example computing system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various technologies pertaining to organization of electronic messagesin general and assigning electronic messages to learned social groups inparticular will now be described with reference to the drawings, wherelike reference numerals represent like elements throughout. In addition,several functional block diagrams of example systems are illustrated anddescribed herein for purposes of explanation; however, it is to beunderstood that functionality that is described as being carried out bycertain system components may be performed by multiple components.Similarly, for instance, a component may be configured to performfunctionality that is described as being carried out by multiplecomponents.

Described herein are various systems, methodologies, and graphical userinterfaces that pertain to organization of electronic messages of anindividual in an intuitive manner. Such organization is accomplished viaorganizing messages around people (e.g., groups) that can berepresentative of a collection of people, one or more topics, a longconversation, etc. Furthermore, priority of electronic messages can beinferred and can be displayed (or not displayed) in a manner thatcorresponds to the priority. Priority of a message can be inferred basedat least in part upon historical correspondence, which can be indicativeof which people are important to the individual, which topics areimportant to the individual, etc. Moreover, active learning can occur,as the individual can manually provide input as to what is and is notimportant (e.g., change priority of a received electronic message).These and other features will be described in greater detail herein.

With reference to FIG. 1, an example system 100 that facilitatesautomatic assignment of an electronic message to a learned social groupof a user is illustrated. Pursuant to an example, at least a portion ofthe system 100 may be included in an email application (e.g., aweb-based email application or a client email application executing on acomputing device). In another example, at least a portion of the system100 may be included in an instant messaging application, RSS feedaggregator, a social networking web site or other suitable system thatreceives electronic messages for display to an intended recipient of theelectronic messages.

The system 100 includes a data repository 102 that comprises learnedsocial groups of a user 104. A social group of the user is an individualor group of individuals that are in some manner associated with oneanother with respect to electronic messages received by the user.Accordingly, a learned social group can be representative of a topic, along conversation, a particular collection of people (e.g., family), aproject, etc. Thus, for instance a social group of the user may includea plurality of people that are in a particular portion of a company orwho are assigned to work on a common task at a place of employment.Thus, a single individual can be included in multiple learned socialgroups, and a learned social group may include one or more individuals.Automated learning of the learned social groups (which is based uponhistorical communications and communication patters) of the user 104will be described in greater detail below.

The system 100 further includes a receiver component 106 that receivesan electronic message that is intended for the user. The electronicmessage received by the receiver component 106 may be an email message,an instant message, a comment to a social networking site of the user,an RSS notification about new or changed content, a text message orother suitable form of electronic communication. An assignor component108 is in communication with the receiver component 106 and can assignthe electronic message received by the receiver component 106 to one ormore learned social groups of the user in the plurality of learnedsocial groups of the user 104. For instance, the assignor component 108can receive the electronic message and ascertain an identity of thesender of the electronic message and/or identities of other intendedrecipients of the electronic message. The assignor component 108 maythen access the data repository 102 and locate one or more of thelearned social groups of the user 104 that correspond to the receivedelectronic message (e.g., locate one or more learned social groups thatinclude the sender of the electronic message, locate one or more learnedsocial groups that include other intended recipients of the electronicmessage, locate one or more learned social groups that are germane to atopic of the electronic message, . . . ). The assignor component 108 maythen assign the electronic message to at least one learned social groupof the user, wherein the assignment may be based at least in part uponthe sender of the electronic message, upon a topic of the electronicmessage, upon other intended recipients of the electronic message, timethat the electronic message was transmitted, subject of the electronicmessage, and/or the like. It is also possible that no relevant learnedgroup is found, in which case the message may be left unassigned. Manyunsolicited or unexpected messages may fall into this category. Messagesnot assigned to any learned group effectively form their own group andmay also be presented to the user, as it will be discussed later.

The system 100 further includes a display component 110 that receives anindication that the assignor component 108 has assigned the electronicmessage to at least one particular learned social group of the user (itis to be understood that the electronic message can be assigned tomultiple learned social groups). The display component 110 can cause theelectronic message to be displayed on a display screen 112 of acomputing device in a manner that indicates to the user that theelectronic message is assigned to the at least one learned social groupof the user. For instance, a particular graphical item can identify thelearned social group. The display component 110 can cause at least aportion of the email to be displayed in a graphical user interface inconjunction with the graphical item that identifies the learned socialgroup. Such graphical item may be a graphical item of a particular coloror shape that identifies the learned social group of the user. Inanother example, the graphical item may be or include text that displaysa name of the learned social group to the user. In still anotherexample, the graphical item may be an image that identifies the learnedsocial group of the user or visually connects the item with the group.Alternatively, the item may be placed in a part of the display screen112 pertaining to the learned social group. Still further, the displaycomponent 110 can cause an audible sound to be output that indicates tothe user of the system 100 that an electronic message has been receivedthat has been assigned to the learned social group of the user.Additional detail pertaining to displaying messages in a graphical userinterface is provided in greater detail below.

The system 100 may also optionally include a data receiver component 114that can receive data from other sources such as social networkingsites, blogs, news sites, file shares, etc. For example, the datareceiver component 114 can be configured to actively search for contentpertaining to a learned social group, such as items published or sharedby the group members, news items pertaining to a topic germane to thelearned social group, as well as updates to social networking sites madeby members of the learned social group.

Additionally, the data receiver component 114 can be in communicationwith the display component 110, and the display component 110 candisplay data pertaining to data received by the data receiver component114 from one or more sources. For instance, the system 100 may be or beincluded in an email application that is configured to receive, displayand transmit emails. As described above, emails may be organized withrespect to social groups of the user rather than organized with respectto manually created folders. The data receiver component 114 can beconfigured to receive data pertaining to individuals in learned socialgroups of the user from other sources. Thus, if an individual in alearned social group of the user updated a social networking site (e.g.,with information pertaining to current status of the individual, postingof new photos or videos on a social networking site, etc.), the datareceiver component 114 can receive such update(s) and the displaycomponent 110 can display data pertaining to the received data on thedisplay screen 112. Additionally, information pertaining to datareceived by the data receiver component 114 can be assigned a graphicalitem that indicates to the user of the email application that the datapertains to a certain individual in a particular learned social group ofthe user. Thus, the email application may be configured to displayupdates pertaining to individuals in learned social groups of the usertogether with receiving, displaying and transmitting emails.

In yet another example, the data receiver component 114 can beconfigured to receive data pertaining to a topic that is relevant to alearned social group. For instance, the learned social group may pertainto one or more topics, and the data receiver component 114 can beconfigured to receive news stories or other information germane to thetopic or topics. The data receiver component 114 can be configured tosearch the Internet, for instance, to acquire data pertaining to thetopic or topics. The data receive component 114 can also be configuredto search the Intranet or other locations that may not be publiclyaccessible, but are accessible to the current user.

Additional information pertaining to the learned social groups of theuser 104 will now be provided. As indicated above, and as will bedescribed in greater detail below, the learned social groups of the user104 can be automatically learned based upon analyzing historicalelectronic message (e.g., email) correspondence of the user includingidentities of individuals who send electronic messages to the user,identities of other recipients of electronic messages received by theuser, groupings of certain individuals on messages received by the user,etc. It is to be understood, however, that social groups are rarelystatic and typically alter over time. For instance, a learned socialgroup of the user may include numerous individuals assigned to a projectat a place of employment. Over time other individuals may be added tothe project or certain individuals may be removed from the project.Electronic messages can be analyzed over time to update the learnedsocial groups of the user 104. For example, if a certain individual in afirst social group is typically included as a recipient in emails thatinclude several other particular individuals, and over time is notincluded on such emails, it can be inferred that the particularindividual is no longer a part of the first social group. Thus, learnedsocial groups can be updated to represent changes in communicationpatterns of the user.

These updates can occur periodically (e.g., weekly, biweekly, monthly),upon receipt of a request to update the learned social groups from auser, upon detection of an anomaly in an electronic message received bythe receiver component 106 (e.g., a new recipient or a new individualthat is also an intended recipient of an electronic message), etc.Therefore, the assignor component 108 can have access to most recentsocial groups of the user when assigning an electronic message to aparticular learned social group of the user.

In addition to assigning electronic messages to one or more learnedsocial groups of the user, the assignor component 108 can automaticallyinfer a level of importance of the electronic message based at least inpart upon identities of intended recipients of the electronic message,sender of the electronic message, topic of the electronic message (e.g.,content of the electronic message, subject of the electronic message),etc. Moreover, the assignor component 108 can infer the level ofimportance based at least in part upon frequency of correspondencebetween the sender and recipient of the electronic message, frequency ofcorrespondence amongst recipients of the electronic message, how quicklythe recipient tends to access messages from the sender, an inferredlevel of importance of a social group that corresponds to the electronicmessage, or other user behaviour with respect to electronic messages.For instance, if the electronic message is sent by an individual thatfrequently exchanges electronic messages with the user, the assignorcomponent 108 can indicate that the electronic message is at leastsomewhat important to the user. Furthermore, the assignor component 108can determine the level of importance of the electronic message based atleast in part upon time that the electronic message was transmitted orreceived, information pertaining to how often the user sends electronicmessages to the sender of the electronic message received by thereceiver component 106, whether the sender of the electronic message isa first-time sender, a domain name pertaining to the email address ofthe electronic message sender, amongst other data.

The assignor component 108 may then assign the inferred level ofimportance to the received electronic message, and the display component110 can display the electronic message in a manner that indicates alevel of importance to the user. For instance, if the electronic messageis deemed to be relatively unimportant, the display component 110 cancause the message to be placed in the periphery of a graphical userinterface (and displayed to the user in a summary message transmitted ata later time). If the electronic message is deemed to be relativelyimportant, the display component 110 can cause the electronic message tobe displayed prominently in the graphical user interface. Thus,electronic messages can be automatically organized/prioritized based atleast in part upon social groups of a user and inferred importance ofmessages.

With additional detail pertaining to low priority messages, the system100 can be configured to generate summaries of messages that the usermay otherwise have overlooked, such as messages moved to a folderoutside of a general inbox of the user (per a user-generated rule), aweekly newsletter that the user often chooses not to read, messagesautomatically removed from the general inbox based upon the assignorcomponent 108 inferring that the messages are low priority messages,etc. The assignor component 108 or other suitable component can cause anemail to be generated and transmitted to the user, wherein the emailincludes a summary of the aforementioned low priority messages. Theemail can be transmitted on a schedule, when a threshold number of lowpriority messages are received, from time to time, periodically, fromtime to time, etc. In another example, rather than including a summaryof low priority messages in an email, the system 100 can be configuredto summarize low priority electronic messages in an instant message, ina web page post, in a text message, etc.

Moreover, a user can manually override a level of importance assigned toan electronic message by the assignor component 108. For instance, ifthe assignor component 108 assigns a level of importance to anelectronic message that indicates to a user that the electronic messageis relatively unimportant, the user can manually change the level ofimportance. The assignor component 108 can utilize such manual feedbackin the future when assigning levels of importance to electronicmessages.

Additionally, the sender of the electronic message can indicate manuallythat the electronic message is important (e.g., send the electronicmessage with high importance). In such a case, the assignor component108 can be configured to refrain from altering the level of importanceassigned to the electronic message by the sender. In another example,the assignor component 108 may assign a secondary level of importance tosuch an electronic message (e.g., the user flagged the electronicmessage as being important, and the assignor component 108 additionallyflagged the message as being especially important).

The display component 110 may be configured to display at least aportion of the electronic message or data corresponding thereto in amanner that is based at least in part upon the level of importanceassigned to the electronic message by the assignor component 108. Forinstance, the display component 110 can assign graphical indicia to atleast a portion of the electronic message to convey an estimatedimportance of the electronic message to the user. In an example, thedisplay component 110 can display an image corresponding to the senderof the electronic message together with the electronic message if theelectronic message has an estimated importance above a threshold. Theelectronic message may be assigned a value of zero if deemed unimportantby the assignor component 108 or one if deemed important by the assignorcomponent 108. If the value is above zero, the display component 110 cancause an image or other graphical item corresponding to the sender ofthe electronic message to be displayed in conjunction with at least aportion of the electronic message on the display screen 112 of thecomputing device. In another example, the display component 110 cancause at least a portion of a body of the electronic message to bedisplayed on the display screen 112 of the computing device if theelectronic message is deemed to have an importance above a threshold. Inyet another example, the display component 110 can be configured todisplay a summary of the electronic message if the assignor component108 has assigned an importance level of the electronic message above athreshold. As will be shown and described in greater detail below, thedisplay component 110 can be configured to display various informationpertaining to electronic messages and/or learned social groups of theuser.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an example system 200 that facilitatesdisplaying emails with respect to social groups of a user isillustrated. The system 200 comprises a data repository 202 thatincludes historical communications 204 pertaining to a user. Forinstance, the historical communications 204 can include emails sent bythe user and received by the user, wherein each of the emails includesdata that identifies the sender of the email and data that identifiesone or more intended recipients of the email. Furthermore, thehistorical communications 204 may include instant messages, commentsprovided to a web site, log of phone and video calls, amongst otherhistorical communications. The data repository 202 may additionallyinclude the learned social groups of the user 104.

A summary generator component 206 may have access to contents of thedata repository 202. For example, the summary generator component 206can receive a request from the user to generate a summary pertaining toemail usage of the user with respect to a particular learned socialgroup or combination of learned social groups. The summary generatorcomponent 206 can access the learned social group or groups indicated inthe summary request provided by the user and can analyze historicalcommunications 204 with respect to the summary request. For instance,the summary request can identify a learned social group of the user andthe summary generator component 206 can access historical communicationspertaining to the learned social group. The summary generator component206 may output data representative of a summary of activities of theuser with respect to the identified learned social group. The summarycan include information such as an amount of time spent by the usercomposing emails to certain members in the learned social group of theuser, an amount of time spent by the user reading emails from certainmembers of the learned social group of the user, a number of emailstransmitted or received from certain members of the learned socialgroup, amongst other data. In addition, the summary generator component206 may identify and display individual messages that may be ofparticular interest to the user based on known or inferred interests ofthe user, endorsements of content of the individual messages by otherrecipients, length of discussion pertaining to the messages, and othercriteria. It may also summarize the whole set of messages by displayingtheir number, list of most frequently discussed topics, mostly repeatedlinks, and other statistical or outstanding information.

The display component 110 can be in communication with the summarygenerator component 206 and can cause a summary with respect to at leastone learned social group to be displayed to the user on the displayscreen 112 of the computing device. For example, the display component110 can cause one or more graphs to be presented to the user to conveyto the user summary data pertaining to communications between the userand members of the learned social group. The summary generator component206 can also output attachments transmitted by individuals in thelearned social group, links transmitted by individuals in the learnedsocial group, attachments read by the user, links selected by the user,news information germane to the learned social group, amongst otherdata. The display component 110 can be configured to display suchattachments/link/information data on the display screen 112 of thecomputing device.

Additionally, the display component 110 can receive email data that isto be displayed to the user on the display screen 112. Pursuant to anexample, the display component 110 can format the email such thatcontent of the email is displayed in a plurality of columns (e.g.,similar to a magazine layout). A reply component 208 may also be incommunication with the display component 110. The reply component 208can receive a request from the user to reply to an email displayed onthe display screen 112 by the display component 110. For instance, theuser can be reading an email displayed on the display screen 112 of thecomputing device and may wish to transmit a reply to such email. Thereply component 208 can receive the reply request from the user and thedisplay component 110 can provide a field in the graphical userinterface where the user can enter text to reply to the email message.Pursuant to an example, the display component 110 can display such fieldin-line with text of the email displayed on the display screen 112 ofthe computing device. That is, at least some text/content of the emaildisplayed on the display screen 112 can be positioned above the fieldwhere the user can enter text to reply to such email.

With reference to FIG. 3, an example graphical user interface 300 of anemail application is illustrated. For instance, the display component110 can cause the graphical user interface 300 to be displayed on thedisplay screen 112 of the computing device. Pursuant to an example, thegraphical user interface 300 can correspond to an email inbox of a user.The graphical user interface 300 can display a plurality of emailmessages 302-306 received by various individuals in different learnedsocial groups, wherein such messages 302-306 can be organized inaccordance with time, subject, sender, group, etc. Each of the emailmessages 302-306 can have graphical items 308-312, respectively, thatcorrespond thereto that are configured to identify the senders of theemail messages 302-306. For instance, the graphical items 308-312 may beimages of senders, may be text that identifies the senders, etc. In anexample, the email 304 may be an email inferred to be important by theassignor component 108 (not shown), and accordingly such email 304 maybe displayed more prominently in the graphical user interface 300 whencompared to emails that are not found to be as important. In such acase, the graphical item 310 may be an image that is representative ofthe sender, while the graphical items 308 and 312 (that correspond toemails found to be of lower priority) may be text.

Each of the email messages 302-306 may also have graphical items314-318, respectively, that correspond thereto that can identify alearned social group or groups to which the email messages 302-308belong. For instance, the graphical items 314-318 may be of a particularcolor or colors that identify a certain learned social group or groups.Additionally, as an email message may be assigned to multiple learnedsocial groups, the graphical items 314-318 may include multipleindicators that can identify learned social groups to which theelectronic messages 302-306 have been assigned.

The graphical user interface 300 may further include a list of learnedsocial groups 320, wherein the user can select a learned social groupfrom amongst a plurality of learned social groups. Selection of alearned social group from the list of learned social groups 320 cancause a graphical user interface to be displayed that providesadditional information pertaining to the selected learned social group,including but not limited to emails assigned to the learned socialgroup, attachments included in emails assigned to the learned socialgroup, etc. A special case includes selection of items that do notbelong to any learned social group. This option may exist in the list320 in addition to all learned groups. Selecting the option may displaymessages that are not assigned to any learned social group, attachmentsincluded in such messages, and information pertaining to individualsthat are senders and/or recipients of these messages.

Referring now to FIG. 4, another example graphical user interface 400 isillustrated. The graphical user interface 400 can be displayed to theuser upon the user selecting a learned social group from the list oflearned social groups 320 in the graphical user interface 300. Thegraphical user interface 400 can include a graphical item 401 that isrepresentative of a learned social group selected by the user.Additionally, the graphical user interface 400 can include one or moregraphical items 402 that are representative of individuals that aremembers of the learned social group. For example, the graphical items402 may include images corresponding to individuals in the learnedsocial group, text that depicts names of individuals in the learnedsocial group, or other suitable graphical items. Therefore, the user canascertain which individuals are members of the learned social group byreviewing the graphical items 402 that represent the group members.

The graphical user interface 400 may further include at least a portionof a plurality of emails 404-408 and sender indicators 410-414 thatcorrespond to the emails 404-408 respectively. For example, the senderindicators 410-414 may be graphical items that are representative ofsenders of emails. Thus, the sender indicators 410-414 may be or includeimages or other suitable data, text and/or the like. A scroll bar 416can be employed by the user to scroll through emails that have beenassigned to the learned social group. As indicated above, the emails canbe arranged based upon time, sender, determined level of importance orother suitable factor. Furthermore, the emails 404-408 can be presenteddifferently depending upon an estimated importance thereof. For example,if the email 404 is marked as being important, the sender indicator 410can be displayed, enlarged, and/or the email 404 can be expanded incomparison to the other emails shown in the graphical user interface400.

The graphical user interface 400 may additionally include a field 417that displays data pertaining to members of the learned social group ofthe user received from other sources. The data may include updates to asocial networking web site of a member of the learned social group ofthe user, an update on a blog of an individual in the learned socialgroup of the user, information relevant to a topic of the learned socialgroup of the user (e.g., news stories), or other suitable data. Thefield 417 can include a plurality of data identifiers 418-420. The dataidentifiers 418-420 can be graphical items that represent individuals inthe learned social group of the user. The data identifiers 418-420 canhave data 422-424 that correspond thereto, respectively. For instance,the data 422 may be an update on a blog of an individual represented bythe data identifier 418 while the data 424 may include data pertainingto a social networking web site of a member of the learned social groupof the user represented by the data identifier 420. Therefore, thegraphical user interface 400 can present additional informationpertaining to individuals and/or topics in the learned social group ofthe user together with emails assigned to the learned social group ofthe user.

The graphical user interface 400 may also include a field 426 thatdisplays attachments, links, shared data objects (which can includefiles, web pages, or other suitable data objects), or other suitabledata to the user, where the attachments and/or links are included inemails assigned to the learned social group of the user and shared datawas published by the members of the learned social group to sharedplaces known to the user. Accordingly, the user need not sift throughnumerous emails or file shares to locate a particular attachment orfile. Rather, the attachments and data objects can be displayed in thefield 426 and the user can quickly cause the item to open by selectingsuch item from the field 426. The field 426 may also include data thatindicates which attachments and/or links have been selected by the useror have not been selected by the user. For instance, the field 426 canindicate that each member of the learned social group of the user hasopened and read a particular attachment while the user has yet to openand read the particular attachment. Furthermore, the field 426 caninclude data that indicates precisely which individuals in the learnedsocial group of the user have read certain attachments presented in thefield 426. Additionally, data that indicates which links have been readby the user and/or certain individuals in the learned social group ofthe user can be included in the field 426.

Now referring to FIG. 5, an example graphical user interface 500 isillustrated. The graphical user interface 500 can correspond to an emailtransmitted by an individual in a learned social group of the user,wherein the email is displayed upon the user selecting such email fromthe inbox or from a graphical user interface that corresponds to thelearned social group. The graphical user interface 500 includes a senderindicator 502 that indicates to the user who is the sender of the email.A group indicator 504 indicates to which group the email has beenassigned (e.g., by the assignor component 108). For instance, the senderindicator 502 may be or include an image (such as an image of thesender), text or other data that can identify the sender of the email.The group indicator 504 may be a color that can identify the group towhich the email has been assigned. The graphical user interface 500further includes a field 506 that includes the body of the emailmessage. As shown, the display component 110 (FIG. 1) can format thebody of the message such that the body of the message is shown in aplurality of columns (similar to a magazine layout). While not shown,the field 506 may also include a subject line of the email, time theemail is transmitted, information pertaining to the sender of the emailamongst other data.

The graphical user interface 500 may further include a reply field 508.For example, the user may wish to reply to the email and may depress agraphical button to indicate the desire to reply to such email. Upondepressing such button the field 508 can be presented to the user inline with at least some of the body of the email message. Thus, thereply field 508 can be displayed below at least some text in the body ofthe email message.

The graphical user interface 500 may also include a field 510 thatdisplays data pertaining to the sender of the email, wherein such datais received from one or more sources. For example, the field 510 candisplay to the user most recent blog updates, comments added to otherweb sites by the sender of the email or other data from a source otherthan an email source that pertains to the sender of the email.

The graphical user interface 500 may also include a field 512 thatdisplays attachments and/or links corresponding to the sender of theemail. For example, the field 512 can display attachments and/or linkstransmitted to the user in email from the sender. In another example,the field 512 may present to the user attachments recently read by thesender of the email and/or links recently selected by the sender of theemail. The attachments and/or links displayed in the field 512 can beselectable by the user such that a selected attachments can be presentedto the user on the display screen 112 of the computing device uponselection thereof and the selection of a link in the field 512 can causea web browser to open (or a new tab to open) and display a web sitecorresponding to the link to the user.

Referring now to FIG. 6, an example graphical user interface 600 thatincludes information pertaining to a summary of email activity of theuser with respect to at least one social group of the user isillustrated. The graphical user interface 600 includes a first graphicalitem 602 that represents an amount of time spent emailing members of thelearned social group. The amount of time can encompass a total amount oftime reading and composing emails pertaining to individuals in thelearned social group, an amount of time only composing emails toindividuals in the learned social group, an amount of time only readingemails sent from individuals in the learned social group, an amount oftime a web page pertaining to the social group is open in a web browser,etc.

The graphical user interface 600 may also include a graphical item 604that conveys to the user a number of emails received by certain membersin the learned social group of the user. Thus, the user can ascertainwhich individual in the learned social group of the user has transmitteda greatest number of emails to the user and which individuals in thelearned social group of the user have transmitted a least number ofemails to other individuals in the learned social group of the user.

The graphical user interface 600 may also include a third graphical item606 that can illustrate to the user a number of emails transmitted bythe user to certain individuals in the learned social group of the user.The third graphical item 606 may be organized in a manner selected bythe user. For instance, the third graphical item 606 may be a graph thatis indicative of a number emails transmitted by the user where certainindividuals are included in the “To:” line of the emails. In anotherexample, the third graphical item 606 can be indicative of a number ofemails transmitted by the user to members in the learned social groupwhere the such individuals are included in a “To:” or “Cc:” line of theemails. Other manners for displaying information pertaining to how theuser communicates with members of social groups are contemplated andintended to fall under the scope of the hereto appended claims.

The graphical user interface 600 may also include a field 608 thatpresents to the user attachments and/or links transmitted amongstindividuals in the first learned social group over a determined periodof time. The determined period of time can be selected by the user(e.g., a month, two months, etc.). The field 608 may also include datathat indicates which attachments have been read by the user, whichattachments have been read by other individuals in the learned socialgroup of the user, which links have been selected by the user, whichlinks have been selected by other individuals in the learned socialgroup of the user, etc. Furthermore, attachments and/or links in thefield 608 may be selectable as described above. While certain data hasbeen described as being shown in the graphical user interface 600pertaining to a summary of email usage of the user with respect to thelearned social group of the user, it is to be understood that other datasummarizing email usage of the user with respect to the learned socialgroup of the user over time is contemplated.

Now referring to FIG. 7, an example system 700 that facilitatesdetermining social groups of a user based upon historical communicationspertaining to the user is illustrated. The system 700 includes a datarepository 702 that comprises historical communications 704 pertainingto the user. The historical communications 704 can include emails, textmessages, phone and video communication, comments made betweenindividuals on social networking sites, etc. A social group determinercomponent 706 can access the data repository 702 and analyze thehistorical communications 704 and determine social groups of the userbased at least in part upon communication patterns in the historicalcommunications 704. Thus, social groups can be learned based upon topic,project, people, etc. Example techniques for learning social groupsbased at least in part upon historical communications of a user aredescribed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,167,910 issued Jan. 23, 2007 and entitled“SOCIAL MAPPING OF CONTACTS FROM COMPUTER COMMUNICATION INFORMATION,”the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. Uponanalyzing the historical communications 704 the social group determinercomponent 706 can output a plurality of social groups of the user 708,wherein each of the social groups of the user can include at least oneindividual.

Referring now to FIG. 8, an example graphical user interface 800 thatillustrates social groups of a user is illustrated. The graphical userinterface 800 comprises a graphical item 802 that is representative ofthe user, wherein the graphical item 802 may be an image of the user orother suitable avatar. The graphical user interface 800 also includes aplurality of other graphical items 804-838 that represent individualsthat have been in communication with the user by way of some form ofelectronic messaging. As can be ascertained from reviewing the graphicaluser interface 800, individuals represented by the graphical items804-838 have been assigned to certain groups of individuals (learnedsocial groups corresponding to the user). For instance, individualsrepresented by the graphical items 804 and 806 have been learned to bein a first social group of the user. Individuals represented bygraphical items 808-816 have been learned to be in a second social groupof the user. An individual represented by the graphical item 818 hasbeen learned to be in a third social group of the user. Individualsrepresented by graphical items 820-826 have been learned to be in afourth social group of the user. Individuals represented by thegraphical items 828-832 have been learned to be in a fifth social groupof the user, and individuals represented by the graphical items 834-838have been learned to be in a sixth social group of the user.

Each of the graphical items 804-838 may be selectable and movable by theuser such that the user can modify social groups (modify members ofsocial groups). For example, the user may wish that the individualrepresented by the graphical item 814 be removed from the second socialgroup and placed in the fifth social group. Accordingly, the user canutilize a mouse or other suitable mechanism to select the graphical item814 and move it to a location that corresponds to the fifth socialgroup. Also, an individual can be removed from the group without beingassigned to any other group, or can be added to a group even if therewas no initial graphical representation. Furthermore, while not shown,one individual may be assigned to multiple social groups. This mayhappen automatically and/or upon receipt of a command from the user. Thegraphical user interface 800 may be accessible by the user uponselection of a button in an email application, for instance. Thus, theuser is free to modify individuals in social groups at any point intime. Furthermore, as indicated above, the social group determinercomponent 706 (FIG. 7) can be configured to periodically execute overthe historical communications 704 as additional communications arereceived to update the social groups of the user. Pursuant to anexample, when a change is made to a social group of the userautomatically an indication can be provided to the user notifying theuser of such change. The user may then accept the change or access thegraphical user interface 800 to modify individuals assigned to aparticular social group.

With reference now to FIGS. 9 and 10, various example methodologies areillustrated and described. While the methodologies are described asbeing a series of acts that are performed in a sequence, it is to beunderstood that the methodologies are not limited by the order of thesequence. For instance, some acts may occur in a different order thanwhat is described herein. In addition, an act may occur concurrentlywith another act. Furthermore, in some instances, not all acts may berequired to implement a methodology described herein.

Moreover, the acts described herein may be computer-executableinstructions that can be implemented by one or more processors and/orstored on a computer-readable medium or media. The computer-executableinstructions may include a routine, a sub-routine, programs, a thread ofexecution, and/or the like. Still further, results of acts of themethodologies may be stored in a computer-readable medium, displayed ona display device, and/or the like.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a methodology 900 that facilitates assigningelectronic messages in an automated fashion to a learned social group ofa user is illustrated. The methodology 900 begins at 902, and at 904 anelectronic message is received. The electronic message can be an email,a text message, a comment on a blog or other suitable message.Furthermore, the electronic message may include data that identifies asender of the electronic message and at least one intended recipient ofthe electronic message. Of course, the electronic message may includenumerous intended recipients. For instance, the electronic message mayinclude at least one individual in a “To:” field and at least oneindividual in a “Cc:” field.

At 906, the electronic message is assigned to at least one learnedsocial group of the recipient from amongst a plurality of learned socialgroups of the recipient. As described above, the plurality of learnedsocial groups of the recipient are at least semi-automatically learnedbased at least in part upon historical electronic correspondence betweenthe recipient and contacts of the recipient, wherein the contacts of therecipient include the sender.

At 908, the electronic message is caused to be displayed to therecipient on a display screen of a computing device. Additionally, theelectronic message is displayed in such a manner as to convey to therecipient that the electronic message is assigned to the at least onelearned social group of the recipient. The methodology 900 completes at910.

With reference now to FIG. 10, a methodology 1000 that facilitatesautomatically assigning an email to a particular learned social group ofa recipient of the email is illustrated. The methodology 1000 starts at1002, and at 1004 a data repository is accessed that compriseshistorical email of a user. The historical email of the user can includeemails transmitted by the user as well as emails received by the user.

At 1006, a plurality of social groups of the user are automaticallylearned based at least in part upon the historical email accessed at1004. As indicated above, social groups of the user can be automaticallylearned based at least in part upon communication patterns between theuser and other individuals in the historical email of the user.Furthermore, at least one of the plurality of learned social groups canbe automatically updated based upon email communications between theuser and other individuals over time. Thus, as communication patternsbetween the user and individuals in a learned social group change, thesocial groups themselves can change.

At 1008, an email message is received, wherein the email messageincludes data that is indicative of an identity of a sender as well asdata that is indicative of identities of individuals of the intendedrecipients of the email message (e.g., individuals included on a “To:”or “Cc:” line of the email message.

At 1010, the email message is automatically assigned to at least onesocial group from among the plurality of social groups of the user basedat least in part upon the identity of the sender and/or the identitiesof individuals that are intended recipients of the email message.Furthermore, a level of importance can be assigned to the email messagebased at least in part upon the identity of the sender of the emailmessage and/or identities of the individuals that are intendedrecipients of the email message.

At 1012, at least a portion of the email message is displayed to theuser together with graphical data that informs the user that the emailmessage is assigned to the at least one social group. For instance, textor an image can be assigned to represent the first social group and suchemail can be placed in a graphical user interface together with the textand/or image representative of the at least one social group to indicateto the user that the received email has been assigned to the at leastone social group.

At 1014, social network data from a social network web site is displayedwith respect to at least one person in the at least one social group ofthe user. Furthermore, the social network data can be displayed in amanner that indicates to the user that the social network datacorresponds to the at least one social group. Therefore, an emailapplication can organize email around social groups of a user and theemail application can further be configured to display data fromsecondary sources corresponding to individuals in social groups of theuser. The methodology 1000 completes at 1016.

Now referring to FIG. 11, a high-level illustration of an examplecomputing device 1100 that can be used in accordance with the systemsand methodologies disclosed herein is illustrated. For instance, thecomputing device 1100 may be used in a system that supportsautomatically learning social groups of a user based upon historicalelectronic communications pertaining to the user. In another example, atleast a portion of the computing device 1100 may be used in a systemthat supports automatically assigning electronic messages to at leastone learned social group of a user. The computing device 1100 includesat least one processor 1102 that executes instructions that are storedin a memory 1104. The instructions may be, for instance, instructionsfor implementing functionality described as being carried out by one ormore components discussed above or instructions for implementing one ormore of the methods described above. The processor 1102 may access thememory 1104 by way of a system bus 1106. In addition to storingexecutable instructions, the memory 1104 may also store learned socialgroups of a user, images or avatars corresponding to groups orindividuals therein, historical communications of the user, etc.

The computing device 1100 also includes an output interface thatinterfaces a computing device 1100 with one or more external devices.For example the computing device 1100 may display text, images, etc. byway of the output interface 1112.

Additionally, while illustrated as a single system, it is to beunderstood that the computing device 1100 may be a distributed system.Thus, for instance, several devices may be in communication by way of anetwork connection and may collectively perform tasks described as beingperformed by the computing device 1100.

As used herein, the terms “component” and “system” are intended toencompass hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software.Thus, for example, a system or component may be a process, a processexecuting on a processor, or a processor. Additionally, a component orsystem may be localized on a single device or distributed across severaldevices.

It is noted that several examples have been provided for purposes ofexplanation. These examples are not to be construed as limiting thehereto-appended claims. Additionally, it may be recognized that theexamples provided herein may be permutated while still falling under thescope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising the followingcomputer-executable acts: receiving, at an electronic communicationsapplication, a selection of a social group that comprises a plurality ofmembers; and responsive to receiving the selection of the social group,causing a plurality of attachments to messages previously transmittedamongst the plurality of members of the social group to be displayed ona display of a computing device.
 2. The method of claim 1, theelectronic communications application being an email application.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving an update to a socialnetworking site pertaining to a member of the social group; andresponsive to receiving the selection of the social group, causing theupdate to the social networking site to be displayed concurrently withthe plurality of attachments on the display of the computing device. 4.The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a news item thatis relevant to the social group; and responsive to receiving theselection of the social group, causing the news item to be displayedconcurrently with the plurality of attachments on the display of thecomputing device.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: learningthe social group based upon recipients of messages transmitted by way ofthe electronic communications application.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving a message transmitted from a member of thesocial group; and responsive to receiving the selection of the socialgroup, causing the message to be displayed concurrently with theplurality of attachments on the display of the computing device.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, the electronic communications application being asocial networking application.
 8. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: causing graphical items to be displayed on the displayscreen of the computing device, the graphical items representative ofrespective social groups, wherein receiving the selection of the socialgroup comprises receiving a selection of a graphical item from thegraphical items that represents the social group.
 9. The method of claim1, further comprising: removing a member from the social group basedupon messages transmitted amongst other members of the social groupfailing to include the member as a recipient.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving a plurality of messages; assigning theplurality of messages to the social group; labeling each message in theplurality of messages as being a low priority message; generating asummary message that summarizes the plurality of messages; andresponsive to receiving the selection of the social group, causing thesummary message to be displayed on the display screen of the computingdevice concurrently with the plurality of attachments.
 11. A computingsystem, comprising: a processor; and a memory that comprises componentsthat are executed by the processor, the components comprising: a datareceiver component that is configured to receive messages transmittedbetween members of a social group, the messages have attachments; and adisplay component that is configured to display the attachments in afield of a graphical user interface responsive to receipt of anindication that the social group has been selected.
 12. The computingsystem of claim 11, wherein one of an email application or a socialnetworking application comprises the data receiver component and thedisplay component.
 13. The computing system of claim 11, the pluralityof components further comprising: a data receiver component that isconfigured to receive an update to a social networking feed for a memberof the social group, the display component configured to display theupdate in another field of the graphical user interface responsive tothe data receiver component receiving the update.
 14. The computingsystem of claim 11, the plurality of components further comprising: anassignor component that is configured to assign an incoming message tothe social group based upon identities of recipients of the message, theassignor component further configured to assign an importance value tothe message, the display component configured to display the incomingmessage in another field of the graphical user interface responsivebased upon the importance value assigned to the message relative toimportance values assigned to other messages assigned to the group. 15.The computing system of claim 14, the display component configured todisplay the message to indicate the importance value assigned to themessage.
 16. The computing system of claim 11, the plurality ofcomponents further comprising: an assignor component that is configuredto assign importance values to messages assigned to the social group,the assignor component further configured to generate a summary messagethat is representative of a plurality of messages identified as beinglow priority by the assignor component.
 17. The computing system ofclaim 11, wherein the data receiver component is configured to receivelinks to web pages transmitted between members of the social group, thedisplay component configured to display the links in another field ofthe graphical user interface.
 18. The computing system of claim 11,wherein the data receiver component is configured to receive datalocated in storage that is shared amongst members of the social group,the display component configured to display the data in another field ofthe graphical user interface.
 19. The computing system of claim 11,wherein the display component is configured to assign data to theattachments that indicate which members of the social group have openedthe attachments.
 20. A computer-readable memory comprising instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform actscomprising: receiving a selection of a social group from a plurality ofpotential social groups; responsive to receiving the selection of thesocial group, identifying attachments to messages transmitted betweenmembers of the social group by way of an electronic communicationapplication; responsive to identifying the attachments to the messages,causing the attachments to be displayed in a field of a graphical userinterface.